Shut Them Down

— METHOD DEVELOPMENT!!

Ragnarok hits him in the mouth, breaking his teeth. Increasing the gravity in her mace, the weight causes her to remove his lower jaw completely. And since Kruger didn’t finish the chant for his technique, nothing happened. But he did manage to kick Ragnarok up into the ceiling.

— LARISSA!

The deadline to live and defeat Kruger was shortening. A mouthless and bloody Kruger screams at Juice, ready to tear him apart with his bare hands. Kruger could still use many of his abilities, through hand gestures and focus. He wasn’t limited to speaking them out loud. But the fury of being pushed around by lesser opponents was getting the best of him. Juice makes distance and aims again. But with a swat of Kruger’s gigantic arm, he removed the gun from his hand, along with the right hand itself.

Ragnarok falls from the ceiling and lands on top of Kruger. With her mace around his neck, she increases the gravity on herself. She forces him to arch back, as the pressure on his neck and body continues to increase. Eventually, her feet touch the ground, allowing her to pull the giant down with even greater strength.

— FINNEGAN!!!

After her callout, Finnegan was already climbing Kruger’s body. Face to face with him, he aims at the head. Kruger tries to lift his arms to stop the gunner, but as Larissa screamed for her life, the gravity she intensified was too great to refute. Their feet was sinking into the floor, and it was miracle that Kruger’s body didn’t break in half from that alone.

Finnegan used his only hand to hold on to Kruger and from the bleeding stump, charged his shoot. He fired non-stop. Each bullet tears through and explodes the monster’s body to bits. Larissa’s mace begins to move downwards, tearing into his torso. Finnegan, Larissa, and Kruger shout with every ounce of effort in their rupturing bodies.

But Kruger failed to withstand their pressure.

Losing his head and his life in the process.

Not stopping after the head was gone, Finnegan begins to shoot the fat body. Noticing that the body goes limp, the gravity effects stops. Ragnarok used the last of her strength to get away from the falling body. And so did Juice. They stumble away letting Kruger’s body make a huge thud on the ground.

Unintendedly, they bump into other chairs of the lounge and instinctively sit down. The body was headless, neckless and with large holes on his chest and shoulders. Gallons of his blue blood slightly flood the room.

— Wow… — Ragnarok pants.

They didn’t even had strength to blink, only breath.

— That was something else…

Juice looks over to her, dumbfounded by exhaustion.

— Nice timing…

— Yeah? — And so was her.

— Yeah…

Thankfully for them, Kruger’s death meant the end of the Cortisol Room’s effects. The injuries stopped stacking and they unknowingly saved themselves from imminent death.

— Wanna go grab a beer?

— I gotta go see my dad, man…

— So, no beer?

— Hmm… yes beer.

— Sounds good.

Many Searchers, including Killerkill rush to the lounge after hearing the ruckus. The woman was already stressed with her own problems. And what she and her fellows saw was two figures sitting down leisurely, drenched in their blood and the blood of the giant headless monster they struck down.

— WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE?! — Killerkill loses it.

— Oh, howdy boss. — Juice nods.

— HEY BO —

Shouting, blood comes out the woman’s nose and mouth causing her to stutter. She and Juice look over to one another and laugh at her silliness together, as if nothing had happened.

— TAKE THEM TO THE E.R. NOW!! — Killerkill ordered.

Helpers come around to save Ragnarok and Juice. And as they are carefully taken away, Killerkill calms down. Staring at the giant’s corpse, her eyes tell her everything. That was Kruger, embodiment of Madness born out of the wonders of the Wetlands. Brother of the late Green, and two other monstrosities, Ejo and Vitrolica. Dead right before her. She looks at her two wasted subordinates being carried off, sharing meaningless banter at door’s death.

— Good job you two…

The duo is laid in their own beds as specialists begin to treat them. On the upper floors, unaware of the sudden attack, Franchise and Evangelist see them get taken away.

— What happened to those two? — The one-eyed Evangelist asks.

— Juice probably got her angry. — The one-armed Franchise continues walking.

— You think so? — She follows.

— Eh. — He shrugs.

Outside the Lapse, around the white courtyard that circled it.

— Hmm…

Someone was sitting down, legs and arms crossed. This girl was caressing her chin, in deep, profound, and abyssal thought — philosophical thought, if you would.

— Kruger died, died too… I guess this might be tougher than it seemed.

She spikes up, standing before the Lapse on her own. She was a small, malnourished, and grey skinned child. She seemed frail but bared the withering skull of a large goat demon as a hat or mask, which made her seem more monstrous. She had vicious yellow and pink eyes and many metallic stakes piercing her chest and shoulders. She only wore bracelets and a stained white robe to cover her legs. She also had strange, accursed markings tattooed around her womb and bellybutton. She always wore a sharp shark-like smile.

— Welp! Time to do the dirty, dirty work!

Her name was Vitrolica. The embodiment of Illness.

— Three others you say…

— These, Anti-Humans… are they as troublesome as Green?

— Yes, my sages.

It was a white room with blinding light, and Captain Searcher Killerkill stood before a council composed of five searchers that were more mind than might. She couldn’t see their faces, only silhouettes. It was up to them to examine the highest-grade relics and report all activities in the Wetlands to the governments of the world. They were the directors of the Lapse and all Captain Searchers answered to them.

— After seeing Green, I harvested his memories and witnessed the other three. I fear that they might be even greater foes than Green himself.

— But what are they anyway? Are Searchers going rouge on us?

Killerkill, hides her thoughts behind her green eyes. She was uptight with the rules and a true bookworm. Liver knew that when he selected her to be his eventual replacement. But more than that, he knew she needed to be sleeker if she wanted to make space for herself among the top dogs. She had that quiet but ever-present diligence in her ways, and that fascinated him.

— They were born out of the wetlands. — She speaks. — Well, at least Green was, I can’t account for the others until I see them.

— Arranging an encounter might be improbable then. But we will send plenty of squadrons to hunt these other three individuals. Might you share more of what you’ve seen?

— Of course.